The future of smartwatches

Smartwatches are supposedly the next big thing. Virtually every major hardware manufacturer already produces a smartwatch or plans to release one in the near future.  Despite the hype, the future of smartwatches looks bleak. Here are five reasons why the smartwatch will fail:

Battery Life

Who wants to constantly charge their watch? You already have to plug in your phone on a daily basis. Imagine having to plug in your watch as well. The most popular smartwatches on the market only have a battery life of approximately seven days.

Health Not So Important

Despite all the hype about health these days, the average consumer does not have a lot of interest in monitoring their heart rate or glucose level. Unless you are big into fitness, who wants to be reminded that their blood pressure is well outside the normal range? We already feel bad about ourselves – and a watch with 15 different health sensors isn’t particularly appealing to most consumers.

Size

With a screen the size of a large coin, there isn’t a lot of space on a smartwatch to consume information. Sure, you might be interested to know who texted you – but reading or responding to their message on a watch won’t be much fun. And forget about checking Facebook. It will be unreadable on a smartwatch.

Style

Watches are more than a tool to check the time. They are a fashion statement. Today’s smartwatches are bulky and generally ugly. While men are less concerned with style, it is extremely important to women. The vast majority of women are unlikely to wear a smartwatch because they are not particularly attractive. Unless manufacturers come up with an appealing design, chances are that most women won’t buy one. That means you have cut your market potential by 50 percent.

Limited Apps

In addition to being a useful communication device, the smartphone has succeeded largely because users regularly download new and interesting apps. Each time you download an app, your smartphone evolves. There is always something new to grab your attention – be it a game or the latest craze in social networking. The demise of the Blackberry and the difficultly that Microsoft faces in its attempt to break into the smartphone market is a lack of apps for those devices.

Aside from telling time, monitoring your health, and a handful of other things, the utility of a smartwatch is very limited. How exciting is a new app to check the weather or see your latest missed call? It is for this reason that most people who purchase a smartwatch today usually stick it in a drawer after only a couple of months of use.

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Manufacturers are betting big on wearable technology. Ultimately, they will realise that smartwatches are a losing proposition and are doomed to failure.